They'll call it chance, or luck, or call it Fate

Thursday was the drama festival at my base school. All the different classes put on plays. It was up to the kids to write the play and do the costumes, scenery, props, and lighting. It was fun to see what they came up with. The plays included everything from three different versions of Snow White, a serious piece about the war in Okinawa, and Home Alone, to The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Ikemen Paradise, and Roman Holiday. I basically spent all day at work watching the performances.

I had work today, even though it was a Saturday, because we had an open class day (so that the parents could come in an see their students' classes). I don't have any classes at my base school on Mondays because every other week or so I have to teach at my low level school on Monday. So I didn't have anything to do at work today, but I had to be there anyways because I didn't want to use one of my paid vacation days. The day was really boring, but it was made better after work when I met up with Kaille and Leslie in Harajuku. We ate dinner at an all you can eat pasta buffet and then went shopping so that we can all wear yukata tomorrow at Sanja Matsuri. Definitely looking forward to it!

I've also been listening to Adam Lambert's new album Trespassing ever since I bought it on Wednesday. It seemed like it tossk forever for this album to come out, but it was totally worth the wait! As much as I love For Your Entertainment, Trespassing is a more cohesive album. It's got a nice balance between dance songs and slower, meaningful songs. I've basically been dancing around my apartment to it all week. "Pop That Lock" and "Shady" are my jams~ 

I basically went out and ate all of the food this weekend. Leslie and I met up again after work on Friday to go to 80+1. We might make it a thing we do on Friday nights. This weekend the cafe was Arabian themed, so the waiters were wearing fun Arabian outfits. They also had a special event menu, so I got a roll cake with hazelnut ice cream. We didn't get to talk much with the waiters this time, but there's always next time. After the cafe, we decided to get more food at Saizeriya. 80+1 usually has pretty decent portion sizes, but the roll cake set wasn't as filling as usual. We opted for Saizeriya because it's always cheap and delicious. The two of us split one of their tiny pizzas. 

Saturday night, I met up with Masami in Shin-Okubo. She invited me to go out to dinner with some of her friends. I met her friends Yuki and Yuka. Yuki does research on Korea and knows Shin-Okubo well, so she guided us to a yummy restaurant called Tomato for dinner. We had chijimi, which is basically a type of veggie pancake, with melted cheese and a spicy sauce on top and another dish (which I've forgotten the name of) that was made with egg but had a consistency similar to tofu. The main part of the meal was grilled meat and kimchi. After dinner we went to Honey Cafe for dessert. We had patbingsu, a type of shaved ice with ice cream, azuki beans, and fruits. Everything was yummy and we ended up chatting about K-pop over dessert.

I met up with Eri for the first time in a while yesterday. We met in Tokorozawa and had delicious Indian curry and naan at Himalayan Dining for lunch. It was really good to catch up with Eri! After we ate, we went to an arcade where Eri kept trying one of the crane games until she won an adorable stuffed bunny. We also did purikura, as usual. Then we spent an hour or so browsing books at BookOff. First I got a copy of the Nana artbook because they were selling it pretty cheaply. My most awesome find of the day was a copy of Miyavi's "Je vous souhaite un bon anniversaire" photobook for 105 yen (it normally sells for around 4,000 yen)! Of course, I had to buy it. It's as good as new and full of adorable pics of young(er) MYV frolicking around Paris. The cutest!

I also got official notice of my JET contract extension last week! At this point, I should be in Japan until at least August 2013! Even though I miss my friends and family, I'm not ready to go back to America yet. And, luckily, my parents are also coming to visit me from March 29th-April 6th! I'm really excited about everything!

I've been meaning to update for the past couple of nights and I haven't. There's no particular reason why. It mostly comes down to a combination of me being forgetful and lazy.

Last Friday night, I met up with Leslie, Masami, and Masami's friend Mariko for dinner. It had been a while since I'd seen Masami, so it was good to see her! She gave me a cute little pig phone charm as a belated birthday present. We went to a Thai restaurant in Shinjuku and ate a bunch of yummy food. We all got to chat for a bit, but sadly we couldn't stay out that late because Leslie and Mariko both needed to be up early the next morning. Originally Yumi was going to come too and some of us were going to go out to Diamond Cutter in Ni-chome after dinner, but plans ended up changing since most of us couldn't be out really late. I think we're going to try to get together and go next month.

On Sunday, I met up with Leslie and Anna. We were originally going to wander around Ueno and see some shrines, but we ended up near Ameyokocho. We started walking, looking for a good place to eat lunch and we realized that we were actually pretty close to Akihabara. So, we ended up spending most of the afternoon in Akiba instead. We went back to the shabu shabu place in the Yodobashi and had a delicious lunch (with slightly less meat than last time). Then we browsed around the usual anime stores. Leslie and I threw in our votes in favor of Anna buying a BL game. She bought a really pretty looking one and it sounds like the three of us are planning on hanging out this weekend and we're going to start playing it together. :Db

Work hasn't been super busy recently. Lesson planning is winding down and there are only a couple more weeks of lessons before the end of this school year. That means that I'll probably have to start creating the final exam pretty soon. 

Here's the last part of my winter vacation updates.

On Thursday night, Kiri and I slept over at Leslie's apartment so that we could get to Comiket bright and early on Friday. I was so excited to get the chance to go, cause Comiket is only one of the biggest anime and manga events in the world. There's always a huge line to get into Comiket, so we arrived over an hour before doors were supposed to open. We met up with serria and got in line. By the time we lined-up, there was already a giant crowd waiting that must have stretched around ten minutes away from Tokyo Big Sight (where Comiket is held). We huddled like penguins in the cold until doors opened and we could go in. Very soon after entering Big Sight, we saw an awesome cosplayer cosplaying Barnaby in his hero suit and had a fangirl moment. Then it was off to look at all of the doujinshi. We looked through four huge halls of doujinshi and still managed not to see all of it. Luckily, as soon as we entered the first hall, we immediately found the Tiger and Bunny doujin. There was so much of it that I think it took up a quarter of the huge hall. I was quite pleased and immediately made a couple purchases. After some browsing we met up with Ali in the outdoor cosplay area. We had to separate from her earlier because she had to go change into her cosplay and we weren't cosplaying (but I do have plans to acquire a new cosplay for the next event). Ali was cosplaying Aeris from FFVII. We spent a bit of time trying to look at all the cosplayers, but it was too crowded since all the cosplayers and people trying to take pictures of them were essentially crammed into a courtyard area. I didn't get too many pictures of cosplayers due how crowded eveything was. We managed to find the awesome Tiger and Bunny cosplayers though (including the Barnaby cosplayer from earlier) so I was happy. (There was also a photographer who asked for pictures of the four of us gaijin girls together, even though Ali was the only one cosplaying. Our pictures are probably floating around somewhere out there on 2ch...) My final doujinshi shopping count for the day was 5 Tiger and Bunny (plus a free T&B cloth bag and clear file because they were gifts being given out by certain circles if you purchased their doujin), 1 Gundam 00, and 1 Saiyuki. We stayed over at Leslie's apartment again that night and continued with Tiger and Bunny and Booze.

( Comiket! )

Saturday, New Year's Eve, was a more relaxed day. Kiri, Leslie, and I did karaoke. Then, later in the day we met with Anna and Ali. All of us put on our warm layers and headed out to do hatsumode (the first shrine visit of the year) around midnight. We ended up at Gojo Tenjin Shrine in Ueno Park to ring in our New Year. There was a line of people waiting for midnight. There was also a large bonfire to burn the previous year's good luck charms. After midnight people were allowed to start making their offerings at the shrine. We went up to pray for good luck in the coming year. We drank traditional sweet sake afterwards. Then we bought good luck charms and fortunes for the coming year. Then it was time to go to back to Leslie's place and go to bed. Also Kiri, Leslie, and I have officially declared that 2012 is going to be the Year of No Fucks (figuratively, not literally). It's our goal to become the most awesome individual we can, by being ourselves and not caring about what others think. I'm also hoping for good things from this year because it's the year of the dragon, which is when I was born.

( Hatsumode )

Sunday was New Year's Day. Leslie, Kiri, and I went out without Anna because she had a bad headache. We had already done hatsumode, so we spent the day shopping at all of the New Year's sales in Harajuku. New Year's Day is when all the stores start selling their lucky packs. Lucky packs are bags of items (generally clothing or accessories) that are sold at greatly discounted prices. The only catch is that you usually can't see what's inside the bag before you get it, so a lot of it is up to chance. Most of the brand name stores sell lucky packs, so we took the opportunity to get some brand clothes for cheaper prices. We went to Laforet and I bought a Sixh. IBI lucky pack from h.NAOTO. It had four pieces in it: a coat, a cardigan, a skirt, and a tank top. It also came in a nice cloth bag. I'm pretty pleased with it! (It also made me realize that most of the clothing I've bought so far in Japan has been shades of black or gray. Not on purpose though. I do like colors!) Then we took a break from shopping and used Kiri's iPod to tune into the online broadcast of the ball being dropped at midnight in NYC. It was kind of a surreal moment, realizing that I was in the middle of Harajuku watching the New Year arrive in America when it had already been the New Year for over half a day in Japan. Then we stopped and did a little shopping, since Ikebukuro was on our way back anyways. Then Kiri and I picked our stuff up from Leslie's place and went back to my apartment. We finished watching (or in my case re-watching) Tiger and Bunny and had lots of feelings.

Monday was Kiri's last day in Tokyo. It was also the day of the Emperor's annual New Year's speech, so we headed into Tokyo in the morning and made our way to the Imperial Palace. January 2nd is one of the two days a year that the inner grounds of the palace are opened to the public. Things were pretty efficient when we got to the palace. We went through the most polite bag search and pat-down that I've ever experienced. Everyone was given a paper Japanese flag to wave and it was off to the inner court of the palace to see the Emperor's speech. We got to the court just in time for the speech. The Emperor appeared with the royal family in a glass enclosed balcony. He gave a short speech about his wish for Japan's recovery. I was honestly expecting the speech and appearance to be longer, but the Emperor is getting pretty old and I guess that appearing in public is getting harder for him. It was still a cool experience though. Anna, Leslie, Kiri, and I then went and got fried rice for lunch. Kiri and I had all of the Tiger and Bunny related feelings about fried rice. Later in the day we had a goodbye dinner for Kiri at one of the 270 yen izakayas. Then Kiri had to go to Shinjuku to catch her bus back to Tokushima.

( The Palace )

It was great to see Kirsten and I was sad that the break had to end. At the same time though, it was nice to have time to relax again. It was a really fun ten days, but we were so busy. We're hoping that Kiri might be able to make it up to Tokyo again during Golden Week.

I'm on my winter break right now and it feels great!

Thursday night was the bonenkai (end of the year, or literally "forgetting the year") party at work. The first part of my school's bonenkai was the annual bowling competition. I was on one of the all ladies teams with Akiko-sensei, Shono-sensei, and Obara-sensei. Our bowling scores weren't that great because none of us were particularly good bowlers, but we had fun anyways. We also shared a lane with the men's team from the English department, so we cheered each other on and gave high fives all around anytime someone did a good job. After the bowling competition was the actual bonenkai, with food and (of course) drinks at a nearby izakaya. They had us draw numbers as we entered the room to figure out where we'd be seated. I ended up being the only girl at a table full of male teachers. They were all very nice though and Ogura-sensei and Amagai-sensei were seated near me, so they were able to help translate any Japanese that I didn't understand. The food was good and because it's winter there was nabe (hot pot). Nabe is so yummy. After we'd eaten a good deal of food and people were tipsy, it was time for a bit of entertainment. They announced the winners of the bowling competition and the winners were given random prizes that were lovingly bought at Don Quixote (a huge chain of discount stores in Japan) by Kuroda-sensei and Takatori-sensei. Then, Kuroda-sensei and Takatori-sensei did an amusing two person comedy act poking fun at some of the teachers at our school. After that, one of the older teachers (who's name I've forgotten) did a rakugo performance, which was a bit difficult for me to understand, but the other teachers really seemed to enjoy it. There were a few speeches given after that by various teachers, the principle, and the vice principles. This seemed to signify the end of the party. At the very end, Shono-sensei pulled me in as back-up in a semi-drunken argument she was having with one of the PE teachers about whether you should go drinking with other girls if you already have a girlfriend. I have to admit, I was pretty amused. It was a fun night! I'm pretty sure that office parties in other parts of the world aren't nearly as fun and amusing as Japanese office parties.

Yesterday, Kirsten arrived in Tokyo! meepalicious, corvae_regina, and I met up with her in Ikebukuro last night. We also met with Zandra, another Tokushima JET, that Kirsten knows. We all went to an izakaya for dinner and had a good time eating, geeking, and chatting. Kiri gave Leslie and I couple's charms that look like cute little sudachi fruits because we're "the biggest lesbian couple" she knows. (We're not actually a couple, though she is the Hakkai to my Gojyo, Issac to my Miria, and Miria to my Issac. XD) We ended our night by taking purikura. Yesterday was a national holiday because it was the emperor's birthday, so we naturally had to include that in our purikura. 



And now today is Christmas Eve. We're going to celebrate by getting KFC and a Christmas cake, like the Japanese do. We're also spending the night at Leslie's apartment, so we can all have Christmas together tomorrow. It'll be different, but I think it'll be a fun way to celebrate Christmas.

First things first, thank you ashura_oh for the cute profile gift! <3

This week was pretty low key. I taught all my students about Christmas and didn't have much else to do. I still have work until next Friday, but this was the last week of teaching classes before winter vacation. I'm super looking forward to the end of this week, which probably means that the week's going to go by really slowly. I'm not just looking forward to break because it's the holidays and time off of work, it's also when Kirsten's coming to visit! Kirsten is one my friends from IES and she's currently a JET down in Shikoku. She's coming to stay with me during the holidays and we're going to do lots of fun things, like celebrating Christmas and New Years, and going to Comiket. :)

I'm pretty excited because this morning I bought a ticket to the YG Family Concert that's being held here in Japan next month! That means that I get to see my bbs Big Bang and 2NE1, as well as some other awesome YG artists like Se7en, Gummy, and Tablo. This also means that I'm going to four concerts in January! First up is LM.C, then exist trace again the day immediately after LM.C. The next weekend I'll go to GazettE's tour final in Yokohama and the weekend after will be the YG concert here in Saitama. So many concerts that I'm looking forward to! :DDD

This week was so long. My students are finished with their term end exam and I've finished grading all of them. I'm not going to any of my visit schools again until after winter vacation. So that left me with fuck all to do at work for the majority of the week (besides making the Christmas lesson, which took very little time). The week goes by so slowly when you have nothing to do.

Tonight was good though. I met meepalicious in Ikebukuro after both of us got off of work. I lent her Veda, my old laptop, because she's been having laptop issues. We also had dinner together. We opted for sushi and got chirashi-don, which was yummy. It was basically sashimi on rice, so I was happy. This weekend should be good, too. My birthday celebrating begins tomorrow night. serria and probably meepalicious are meeting up with me and we're going out to the bars in Ni-chome. I'm looking forward to it! Eri's going to visit me for a bit tomorrow afternoon, too, cause she's too busy to join in on the rest of my birthday plans on Sunday. Sunday's birthday plans are going to involve going to another dansou cafe in Ikebukuro. It should be fun I think. :3

Tonight is the coldest night here yet. I think it's in the upper 30s (Fahrenheit, not Celcius) right now. It's times like this when I curse the fact that Japan is not a fan of central heating. My little wall heating unit only does so much to warm my drafty apartment (buildings here also have horrible insulation). I'm going to go curl up under even more blankets now that I don't have to do things. Brr.

[Error: unknown template qotd] I'd buy plane tickets so that all of my family and friends could visit me in Japan. I love living in Japan, and I'd love to see them and have them experience Japan for themselves.

In other things, today was a nice, easy day at work. I was at Koyo, the visit school that I really enjoy, today. We met in a different part of town, so that the students could run the school marathon. Before the marathon started, some of the braver third year students (I don't normally teach third years at Koyo) came to talk to me. This mostly consisted of groups of girls coming up to me and designating the best English speaker in the group as the person to ask me all of their questions. They were adorable and enthusiastic though. Before the marathon started, a few of the English teachers and I took a nice riverside walk to one of the farthest check points, one that only the boys had to run to (because they had to run farther than the girls). We then waited for all of the boys to run past the check point and cheered them on. Then we walked back and the school day ended early. I got to go home about three hours earlier than usual, so it was a good day.

I always start writing these entries about my weekend on Sunday night, get too tired to finish them and end up posting them on Monday. orz

I relaxed on Friday night by watching the movie Antique, a Korean version of Antique Bakery. It was a fun movie with a surprisingly serious story underneath. I recommend it. Of course, my favorite part was Kim Jae Wook playing the cute and sexy gay pastry chef. (I've liked Kim Jae Wook since I saw him in Coffee Prince.) The movie also made me really fucking want some cake.

I didn't do much during the day on Saturday. I would normally have had a Japanese lesson at the local culture center, but we had a break from lessons this week. I was going to try and go to the Mando Matsuri that was being held in my town instead, but it was raining too much. It's not quite as much fun to go to a matsuri in the rain. In the early evening, I met Joe and we got Mexican food in Ikebukuro. I don't usually crave Mexican, but it'd been so long since I'd last had it that I really wanted some. I had chicken quesadillas, which were good, but could've used more cheese. Food aside, I used this date to try and figure out my feelings about Joe and confirm a few things that I noticed the last time we went out together. He can be fun to talk with and banter back and forth, but I think there's just something that doesn't quite click with me. Occasional comments that don't quite sit well (generally just typical guy stuff; feeling the need to assert his masculinity, which implies that he's actually insecure in his masculinity, etc.). He also seems to enjoy jokingly commenting on the extent of my geekiness. I get the impression that he's only a video game geek, while I have a broader range of geeky interests. Dude, I get how geeky I am. There's no need to point it out every time you learn something new about how much of a geek I actually am. I did enjoy the fact that he paid for everything from dinner to ice cream to coffee and drinks last night. I also appreciated the fact that he's trying to show interest in music I like, like downloading GazettE's new album on iTunes to listen to it. I don't know though. Maybe I'm being overly picky like I tend to be with guys, I feel like there's something that's not quite there for me...which means that it's going to be up to me to tell him that the next time I see him. Always a fun task. I wouldn't mind continuing to be friends with him, but I don't think I want a relationship with him.

Yesterday, I met up with Leslie and Anna. We did a quick trip to the Pokemon Center. I didn't end up buying anything for myself, but I bought some stuff that Zury wanted (that she's going to pay me back for). Then, we went to Harajuku. We browsed a ton a places all over Takeshita Dori and the nearby area. I bought a kind of asymmetrical long black skirt at Closet Child and some new fishnets. I also had some delicious naan and chicken curry for lunch. Anna left slightly earlier than Leslie and I did. Leslie and I then stopped at a cafe on Takeshita Dori and had some iced tea (mine was honey and ginger, hers was milk tea) and cake. I was finally able to eat the cake I'd been wanting since Friday. We tried to do a little more shopping after that, but didn't end up buying anything else. It was fun to be able to go shopping again in Harajuku though!

My lessons are almost back to normal now that midterms are over. I looked back at my LJ entries and realized that I hadn't really mentioned midterms much (though I certainly did on Twitter). Midterms at my base school finished last week. I created the listening midterm, read it aloud to the students during the exam, and graded 300+ copies of it. It was a lot of work, but I learned a thing or two about grading and creating midterms that should hopefully make it easier for me next time.

I'm going to recap my weekend in an effort to keep myself distracted.

On Thursday night, after work, my co-workers in the English department of my main high school threw me a belated welcome party. It was my first time attending a drinking party with my co-workers. It was a good time. Of course, it was held at an izakaya, as most Japanese work parties seem to be. This gives everyone the excuse to relax and drink, which is pretty much what happened. We ate yummy food, like sashimi and yakitori, and drank. The ettiquette at these parties is to make sure that your co-worker's glass is never empty, so as soon as you finish one drink, you immediately get another one. I had a couple cocktails (because I don't like beer, which is what everyone else was drinking) and then some of my co-workers switched to sake, which they wanted me to try, so I had a couple tiny cups of sake. By that time it was close to the end of the party and I was feeling pretty good. Then the teachers and I walked to the train station together (most of them usually drive, but in Japan you're not allowed to drive if you've had any alcohol), laughing and joking around.

On Friday, I met up with Eri in Kokubunji. We did karaoke together. I sang some stuff in Japanese along with the usual English stuff (like Gaga). It's definitely harder for me to karaoke in Japanese, but I knew that Eri wouldn't laugh at me if I fumbled my Japanese. I tried sticking to Japanese songs that I know really well, like Gackt (Eri and I both love him) and Gazette. I did alright, but I could still use some more practice. After karaoke we did a bit of shopping and then went to Denny's for dinner. I had spagetti with meat sauce and it tasted super delicious, probably because it's been a few months since I've last had it. For dessert I had crepes with murasaki imo (purple potato) filling and caramelized kabocha (pumpkin). It was yummy!

Saturday, I ventured out to find the nearest Lawson (a Japanese convinence store) in my neighborhood. I was on a mission to buy tickets to Gazette's new tour and Lawson was the only place to buy them that didn't involve needing a Japanese credit card. It was about a thirty minute walk to get to Lawson. Sadly, by the time I arrived tickets for all of Gazette's Tokyo show had sold out, despite the fact that they'd gone on sale that morning. Those were the only shows that I could've easily gone to, so I was pretty disappointed. I'm hoping that I'll have better luck next time. In the meantime, at least I can by their new album when it's released next week.

I went to Yokohama yesterday, to meet up for another date with Joe. I'd never been to Yokohama before. It was good! We had some coffee at Starbucks, then took a tour boat to Chinatown. We had dinner in Chinatown after a bit of shopping. We found a store that only sold panda themed items and I was much amused by it. I like hanging out with Joe and we have fun witty banter together. I think there'll be a date #3.

Think I'm going to head to bed now. I've got quite a few classes to teach tomorrow and maybe some sleep will help improve my mood.